Chester County's MIRT Team helped with unprecedented security for visit by Pope Francis

10/02/2015 02:46PM
● By Steven Hoffman

Det. John A. Trevisan, Jr. and officer
Jeremiah Boyer, two members of the Kennett Square Police Department,
took part in the security effort to protect Pope Francis while he
visited Philadelphia during the last weekend in September.

The historic six-day visit by Pope
Francis to New York City, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia produced
one of the biggest security operations in U.S. history, and ten
officers throughout Chester County were a part of the large security
team in Philadelphia because of their special training with the
county-wide Major Incident Response Team (MIRT). Trevisan, a 16-year
veteran of the Kennett Square force, explained that there are about
25 officers who serve on the MIRT, and the response team has a
mutual-aid agreement with Philadelphia and other law enforcement
agencies to assist when special circumstances arise.

With the Pope visiting, Philadelphia
needed all the law enforcement support it could get. When the
opportunity arose to take part in the assignment to provide security
during the Pope's visit, Trevisan said that he was eager to do so.

“I am Catholic so it was a
once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Trevisan explained during an
interview last week. “It was a tremendous experience. I have a lot
of respect for the Pope.”

On Saturday, Pope Francis spoke at
Independence Hall before celebrating at the Festival of Families on
the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The MIRT officers from Chester County
were assigned to patrol at 17th and Cherry streets in
Philadelphia.

On Sunday, the Papal mass drew a crowd
of approximately 800,000 people, and the Chester County MIRT was on
roving patrol. At one point, the team was positioned on the campus of
St. Joseph's University during the Pope's visit there, providing
carefully planned out and coordinated protection.

At one point during the St. Joseph's
University visit, Trevisan said, he was about 100 feet away from Pope
Francis, and Boyer's assignment had him even closer to the Pope than
that for a period of time.

The U.S. Department of Homeland
Security designated Pope Francis' visit to the U.S. as a National
Special Security Event, placing it on the same level, in terms of
security, as a political convention, the Olympics, or the Super Bowl.
As a result of that designation, the U.S. Secret Service was charged
with ensuring the Pope's security, coordinating the efforts of
thousands of federal, state, and local law enforcement officers from
numerous agencies. The Secret Service, the F.B.I., the New York City
Police Department, the Pennsylvania State Police, and state police
from neighboring states were all a part of the complex effort.

Trevisan said that, as a law
enforcement professional, it was an amazing to see all the different
agencies working together to provide the level of security necessary
to protect the Pope and the hundreds of thousands of people who
turned out to see him.

“My hat is off to the Philadelphia
Police Department,” Trevisan said. “They did a fantastic job of
coordinating everything.”